Love You The Most
by I-Am-Jacks-Smirking-Revenge
Summary: The Stevens' family falls into a depression, and with Louis' death, Ren can see nothing in her life worth living for. Will eventually be LarryRen. (Hiatus)
1. One

LOVE YOU THE MOST  
  
Dear Ren,  
  
I'm sorry I disappointed you. Again. It doesn't matter. Not anymore. I'll never embarrass you, or mom or dad or Donny ever again.  
  
I know you're wondering why I left the note to you. In truth, Ren, you're the only one I respect anymore. I know mom and dad have been fighting, and I heard them screaming about Donny and the drugs. I hope he gets help. You could probably help him. You should.  
  
Sorry for being so selfish.  
  
Love you the most,  
  
Louis  
  
Ren looked over the letter. Then she looked over it again.  
  
'He's just joking around. He's just in his room, waiting to laugh his head off at me...'  
  
Her thoughts were half hearted, and she could feel herself beginning to panic. 'No... This can't be happening. Why?'  
  
"Why?" She whispered. Carefully, she moved from her room, heart thumping wildly in her chest. She headed down the hall, and stopped in front of Louis' door.  
  
Her parents angry voices drifted upstairs. Ever since Louis had started high school, Donny had been hooked on one drug or another, to 'escape the pressure of the competitive sporting world', as he put it. Her parents had begun to fight, and life got hard. Especially for Louis.  
  
"It's not about the money! You know what it's about, Steve!"  
  
"Oh, really, Eileen! Then what is it, huh? What is it?"  
  
"You think I haven't SEEN her, Steve?"  
  
"Seen who?"  
  
"That blond tramp! The one you were eating dinner with the other night! The one who visits you in your office, and the one who, no doubt, YOU visit on those 'late nights at the office.'"  
  
"OH! So now you've been spying on me, is that it?"  
  
Ren clenched her eyes shut and pushed Louis' door open. She stepped in, hardly daring to look.  
  
And there he was, curled up on his bed. Ren cursed her own stupidity under her breath, and then stomped over to her brother's bed. She grabbed his shoulder, intent on shaking him awake. She rolled him over, and Ren froze. Half lidded eyes, shock pale skin, fingers curled around an empty bottle of prescription pills. He was dead. He had killed himself.  
  
Choked sobs traveled up and down Ren's body. Her parents' voices got louder then ever in her ears. Wavering slightly, she walked over to Louis' door and shut it. Then she crawled into her brother's bed and wrapped her arms around his cold body.  
  
She didn't sleep that night, but rather drifted into a delirium of nightmares.  
  
Her parents voices drifted in and out of her awareness. Images of Louis, pale faced and certainly dead, but walking and staring at her out of blank eyes, were the main focus of her thoughts.  
  
Words kept on echoing through her head. Louis' words.  
  
Love you the most.  
  
She loved him the most, too.  
  
TBC  
  
A/N Please R&R! Pretty please 


	2. Two

I forgot the disclaimer last time.. --;; O, well, here goes...  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Even Stevens. If I did, Ren and Larry would be a couple, and people would be a lot nicer to Louis. But, I don't. So don't sue. I have no money.  
  
LOVE YOU THE MOST  
  
The creak of the coffin lid closing felt like razors to Ren's ears. The priest began to talk, but the frighteningly blank girl didn't hear his words.  
  
She hadn't cried. Yet. She felt empty. Like there was nothing there.  
  
As the priest continued to ramble, Ren scanned the faces of the people who had attended the funeral.  
  
Twitty was, to say the least, miserable. He looked like he had been crying for days, and he obviously hadn't slept well. Ren's heart went out to him, and she made a silent note to herself to give him a hug after the ceremony. He needed it.  
  
Tawny had silent tears running down her face. Ren was never too sure how to read the girl, but it had been well known that Louis had loved her, more then just a friend, and so Ren took her to heart as a sister.  
  
Tom was sniveling, but mostly seemed better then Ren thought he should be.  
  
Donny... Hadn't showed up. Ren knew that he was too upset to come, and so, with the last stitch of understanding in her soul, she managed to forgive him. It was, after all, Donny who was going to have trouble looking at himself in the mirror in the morning.  
  
Her mother and father were in shock. Ren had trouble feeling sorry for them. Hadn't they been the ones who drove him to this? Maybe, and the girl was being quick to judge at the moment.  
  
There were various other relatives and friends at the ceremony, including Ruby and Uncle Chuck, but Ren had almost no interest in them at the moment.  
  
The priest finished and Ren turned her attention back to the coffin.  
  
She felt tears welling up in her eyes. She realized, fully for the first time, that she was never going to see Louis again.  
  
Hiccupping with a sudden surge of sobs, Ren teetered forward, towards the coffin. Streams of tears ran down her face.  
  
She approached, with an unbearable ache in her heart, and collapsed on top of the mahogany box. The cries that breeched her throat were heart breaking, and the rest of the family looked away.  
  
"G-goodbye, Louis. Sorry I wasn't nicer to you." Ren placed a small kiss on the coffin lid, pushed herself up, and left the cemetery without another word.  
  
Ren stayed home from school for a week.  
  
Her mother said it was to 'get her thoughts in order.'  
  
Her father said it was to 'try and clean up her emotions.'  
  
In truth, they were both wrong. Ren wanted nothing more then to lay in her bed and stare up at the ceiling, counting every crevice. She didn't think. She didn't feel. She just counted.  
  
But, the day did come when she got up, brushed her teeth, got dressed, grabbed her school things and then left to school without even speaking to her parents.  
  
Ren walked to the school, knowing full well she would get there early.  
  
As she walked down the street, she saw something that seemed hilarious to her at the time: Up ahead, at the corner of the street, was Ruby, fawning- positively FAWNING-over Bobby Deaver, who was flirting and smiling at the love struck girl. Ren didn't care. She wasn't quite sure what she had seen in him before Louis' death, but it was clear now that he was nothing more then a playboy.  
  
Ren moved to the opposite side of the street and continued on her way to school. As she reached the large doors, she sighed, wondering if she was really ready yet.  
  
TBC  
  
A/N Woo! What will happen to Ren in school? Will it have to do with... Dun dun dun... Larry Beale? Find out, next chapter... 


	3. Three

A/N OMG! SHE ACTUALLY UPDATED!!!! collective gasp. Hello, everyone, and no, I'm not dead. I'm sorry it took me so long, but around Christmas... things started happening, and I had to deal with stuff. Anyway, I'm back now, and thank to good old Summer, I'll have as much time as I need! YAY!  
  
LOVE YOU THE MOST  
  
A bombardment of emotions attacked Ren as she walked down the familiar hall of the school. She was struggling to not just turn around and run. This place, all of the classrooms and halls, the lockers, the students... none of it was right without Louis there to give it that personality. To stir things up when it got too boring, even for Ren.  
  
Just as she was finally ready to leave, she was presented a surprise, a cruel present, even. There, one shoulder against her locker, staring down the hall with those impatient eyes, was Larry Beal. A giggle rose in Ren's chest, but she quelled it. Everything that was happening was so much like a dream. Louis dying, Ruby and Bobby getting together, and now Larry Beal was waiting for her by her locker. It took a moment for her to realize that he must have been waiting for her every day that week.  
  
A curiosity rose in her chest as she tried to stop more of the uncontrollable giggles from escaping. What was he doing? Did he want to say he was sorry Louis had died? If that was the case, then she had no wish to speak with him. One person after another had come to her, expressing their apologies as best they could, as though it was their fault he had died. Their fault he had killed himself.  
  
Larry's eyes darted up suddenly and met hers for what seemed like an eternity. Something stirred in Ren that she couldn't quite place. That she wasn't sure if she wanted to.  
  
Slowly, her long time rival straightened and strode over to her. As he neared, the tremulous giggles that wanted to escape slowly died out, leaving her feeling flighty and nervous.  
  
"Ren..." Larry greeted in a neutral tone.  
  
Ren carefully swallowed the lump that had risen in her throat, and nodded at him. There was a painfully awkward silence that followed, Ren glancing around, looking at anything that wasn't Larry, Larry's eyes fixed firmly on the floor at Ren's feet.  
  
"A-about Louis..." Ren scowled slightly to herself. So he was going to apologize, just like the rest of them. "I- I wish I was nicer to him..."  
  
Ren blinked once. She hadn't been expecting that. "I think..." She started, and it did strike her then as funny that the first person she had spoken to in a week was Larry Beale, "We all wish that."  
  
The awkward silence fell again, but this time it was almost companionable, their eyes no longer avoiding each other.  
  
"Do you..." Larry began, his eyes not leaving hers. "I don't really know how you're feeling right now. But, do you... uh... you know, just to get your mind off it... doyouwannadosomethinafterschoolwithme?" He asked quickly, his cheeks darkening.  
  
Ren blinked again, and her mind slowly picked apart what he was asking. "Well... I'm not doing anything. Sure, why not?" She forced a smile. In truth, the thought of going somewhere, anywhere that wasn't home or school, was a welcome relief.  
  
And the idea that it was Larry Beale she would be going with made it nearly intangible. Making her want it all the mare.  
  
The classes that day crawled by slowly. Everyone was skirting around her, giving her worried looks, crooning about how sorry they were, how sweet Louis had been, how horrible she must feel. She found herself repeating 'they mean well, they mean well, they mean well...' over and over again in her head like a mantra.  
  
Ruby was hardly even talking to her. Ren could see the looks of guilt that flashed across her face, and knew that it was the thought that she had 'stolen' Bobby Deaver from Ren right after her brother had died that kept her at bay.  
  
It was driving her insane.  
  
Even her teachers were acting insufferable. "Yes, Ren dear?" "Oh, Ren, are you feeling well? Do you need to go to the office?" "Ren, if you need someone to talk to..." "Ren, do you want to go to the counselor's office this period?"  
  
She found herself looking forward more and more to the end of the day. And that made her worry.  
  
Things around her were changing drastically. She could see it and feel it and the same time. Ruby wouldn't speak to her, Bobby Deaver was no longer even an interest point in her life, her teachers had suddenly become nervous at the sight of her...  
  
And she had a date. With Larry Beale.  
  
And for that, she was happy.  
  
Her world was definitely turning upside down.  
  
TBC 


End file.
